Beckhoff wouldn’t be Beckhoff, if this wasn’t accompanied by a technological offensive, the effect of which will be felt for years to come. We are obviously referring to EtherCAT, the fastest Ethernet-based fieldbus for industrial or other applications requiring ultra-fast I/Os currently on the market. A large number of companies have recognized the technological significance of this innovation. More than 60 companies joined the EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG), in order to push the standard and to accompany its further development. The company Schuler Hydrap – one of the pioneers within ETG – gives an account of their first practical experience with EtherCAT.

This issue of PC Control also includes details of other exciting products that originated last year, and which are now ready for mass production: Ethernet panels as intelligent displays and type BX Bus Terminal Controllers.

But let’s ask a heretical question: Is this it? Does the calculatory recording of the business success at the end of the financial year and the – admittedly exciting – invention of new technical means satisfy our digitally trained minds? Sometimes it appears that way, but during moments of reflection a term may come up whose status in our technically driven world unfortunately appears to have been reduced to an optional extra: ethics.

I am convinced that job and business ethics are one of the basic prerequisites for the medium- and long-term success of a company. In the context of automation, ethics defines itself through the interaction of technology with people. Without having recorded them explicitly in the form of documents, such principles tend to grow from the history of a company. Elektro Beckhoff GmbH can look back over 50 years of company tradition, which started with Arnold and Elisabeth Beckhoff sharing lunch with the staff in their living room. While the living room is no longer in use, the company has retained humaneness, which shapes the often very personal relationship with staff and customers.

One of the future technical challenges for automation technology is, for example, the question of how to sensibly utilize the abundant processor capacity, particularly if a powerful I/O system such as EtherCAT removes the bottleneck for the data transfer of sensors and actuators. This is a challenge for the imagination of the engineers. The ethical aspect comes in when one considers how far technology and automation penetrate the domestic sphere. A good example is the socalled „Care-O-bot®“ developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology and Automation in Stuttgart. This mobile, self-navigating domestic robot utilizes the currently available computing capacity for carrying out simple domestic activities such as bring and collect services, and as an intelligent walking aid. Additional functions as a communication interface to the family, vital function monitoring, personal schedule manager etc. have been proposed. The old eternal dream of cybernetic intelligence is beginning to take shape, raising unforeseeable ethical issues: What should such a robot be able to do? Should it replace care service? Can it be left to look after children? As a father of two children I have to ask myself whether I would really want to entrust them to such a robot. In future, my answer would very likely be „yes“, since I would trust the engineering effort and diligence – comparable with the fact that today I take my children in the car without any particularly reservations. Diligence therefore becomes an aspect of „technical“ ethics.

„Ethics does’nt sell!“ This succinct statement came up when I discussed the issue with my wife. I fear she is right, particularly in a technically dominated environment, where figures and facts are used as the basis for assessment. – However, „ethics does’nt sell“ doesn’t necessarily represent a conflict with economic success. I would even go as far as saying that ethics is an indispensable basis for success. In reality, however, as always a balance has to be struck between justifiable business interests and moral aspects.

Clear, transparent business policy, combined with humaneness and convincing technical innovation, forms the foundation of Beckhoff’s successful business development. Sales, company growth and ethics are not in conflict, yet they have to be brought into harmony on a daily basis. Automation technology is not least a technology developed by people for people, although in our industry sector we rarely get the opportunity to reflect on these issues.

We may even be able to teach Georg Büchner (1813-1837) a lesson, who claimed there are only three ways of making money humanely: „finding it, winning the lottery, or by inheritance“: After all, he didn’t know any automation engineers!

Andreas Thome
Product manager for PC control systems
redaktion@pc-control.net